Stay tuned to this post throughout the night for the latest backstage updates from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

You can also stay up to date with our traditional UFC 167 live results post, which includes play-by-play, live scoring, judging, fight recaps, photos and more.

Enjoy the fights, everyone.

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5:45 p.m. ET: It’s a temperate November day here in Las Vegas, and MGM Grand Garden Arena is already teeming with fight fans. On the way in today, I spotted Greg Jackson, who made the mistake of strolling through the casino a couple hours before the fight, perhaps thinking he wouldn’t have to step every three steps and pose for pictures. He thought wrong.

6:30 p.m. ET: The UFC seems poised to make the most of its 20th anniversary tonight. Backstage at MGM Grand, there’s one whole wall dedicated to an extensive timeline of major UFC moments, from UFC 1 all the way to tonight. There’s even an old photo of Randy Couture in the mix. To stand with the low-res photos of brutal early battles on one end of the wall and look all the way down to the sharp images of Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva is to be reminded just how far this sport has come.

7:30 p.m. ET: On our way in tonight we were handed these nifty little bracelets. Great cartons of them were positioned at the main entrance. Although I was originally concerned that it was an effort to track our movements in the wild, they recently began lighting up in unison. Apparently the plan is to use them to greater effect at some point later in the night.

8:15 p.m. ET: Sergio Pettis made it backstage after his successful UFC debut, admitting that while he may have looked pretty poised for a 20-year-old octagon newcomer, he wasn’t feeling so calm to start.

“Right when my music came on, I had this weird energy that went through my whole body and went out my head,” Pettis said. “I was just like, ‘Whoa, this is the real deal.’ Definitely a lot different feeling.”

Now that it’s over, Pettis said, it’s time to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

“I’m going to have this rush with me for probably 24 hours,” Pettis said. “I’m going to stay up this whole night. By the time I get on the plane tomorrow, I’m going to be knocked out for a day and a half.”

8:25 p.m. ET: When the topic switched to news about his own career, Anthony Pettis didn’t have a ton of info on how long his knee injury might keep him out of action. Some doctors told him he’d need surgery, he said, and others said he wouldn’t. On Monday, he added, he should get a more definitive answer.

“If it’s surgery, I’m out six to seven months,” he said. “If no surgery, it’s six to seven weeks.”

As for reports that he’d gotten into a fracas with Nick Diaz at a nightclub recently, Pettis downplayed the rumors, saying, “I think Twitter made it bigger than it really was.” The quick version, he said, involved an exchange of words while Pettis was taking a photo with a fan, and things followed a predictable trajectory from there.

8:30 p.m. ET: I spoke to UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby earlier tonight. As the man responsible for managing the women’s weight classes, as well as the men’s divisions lighter than 155 pounds, the inclusion of 115-pound women is bound to have an impact on his workload. When asked if his phone and email had been blowing up with messages from managers and fighters since the announcement, Shelby just groaned and shook his head. “You don’t even know,” he said. I believe it.

8:50 p.m. ET: The UFC has one full wall of the MGM Grand Garden Arena media center dedicated to displaying old event programs. It’s a good reminder that the graphic design budget wasn’t always what it is now. For proof of that, glance up top there at the program for “UFC 37: High Impact,” live from Bossier City, La.

9:55 p.m. ET: Erik Perez, sporting a souvenir on his nose from his unanimous decision win over Edwin Figueroa, made it pretty clear what he’s hoping for as the UFC expands its global reach.

9:10 p.m. ET: Rick Story, with the cut over his left eye still seeping blood, stopped by to tell us that sharing a training camp with Georges St-Pierre might have been the best thing that could have happened to him leading up to his unanimous decision win over Brian Ebersole.

“He’s the best in the world, and he’s been the best in the world for the last six years,” Story said. “It was absolutely amazing having him as a sparring partner. It was, hands down, the biggest confidence-booster knowing that I have him as a training partner.”

But victory aside, being on the undercard of a welterweight title fight between his sparring partner and a fighter he has a win over has to be a bit of a bittersweet feeling for Story. Not that he doesn’t understand how it all came to pass.

“You know, they did what they needed to do to get there,” Story said. “I have nothing against it. They’re making it happen, and I kind of slipped. I’m doing what I need to do to make it happen again.”

10:10 p.m. ET: Thales Leites now has two straight wins in the UFC since returning to the promotion after his exit in 2009, but this one – a unanimous decision over Ed Herman – left him feeling “a little bit sad” at the lack of a submission finish. Still, Leites said, this stay in the UFC is already different from the last.

11:05 p.m. ET: You might have noticed that Jason High looked pretty fired up at Friday’s weigh-in for his bout with Anthony Lapsley. High burst onto the stage and got right in Lapsley’s face, prompting UFC President Dana White to step in and end the staredown. Turns out, as High told us after his unanimous-decision win, there was a purpose behind that.

“I just wanted to let him know that we ain’t friends,” High said. “Before we went out, he was talking to me, trying to slap hands and what not, and I’m not cool with that. We’re about to fight. … I just wanted to let him know that we’re not buddies.”

High got the point across, in part with his utter domination of Lapsley in the first round. As for whether this win will afford him some bigger opportunities in the future, he sounded optimistic.

“I should have been off the prelims a long time ago,” High said. “I’m main card talent.”

11:35 p.m. ET: Mark Coleman is in the house, enjoying the 20th anniversary celebration. Although he admitted that the day they outlawed headbutts was “a sad day” for him, he got emotional just talking about his own journey through the evolving sport, leading up to this special night.

11:40 p.m. ET: Jake Ellenberger is looking dapper tonight, and, as he told us backstage, enjoying being a fan at the 20th anniversary event. At the same time, he seemed to have some mixed emotions about watching Robbie Lawler notch a big win over Rory MacDonald, who gave Ellenberger a loss in his last outing.

As he said: “I was actually talking to Monte Cox, a good friend to both of us, and he manages Robbie as well, and he was like, ‘Well, we hate to say this, but you really gave us the blueprint for how to beat him.’ He’s a tough kid. He’s skilled, and he fights smart. Whether you like him or not, you can’t knock him for that, for fighting smart, fighting intelligently. At the same time, that’s the way to beat him. You’ve got to get in his face and create opportunity, which Robbie does really well.”

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